Your comment proves mine.
How, for example, does BAFing explain how I sometimes sail east and/or west --and back -- up to five miles each way (e.g., Maryhill Bridge to well east of Rufus and back on a 65L Bonzer) from launches? Or range up and down the river over a couple of miles many times each session, sometimes well over a mile in one powered reach, on comparable boards?

Your comment proves mine.
How, for example, does BAFing explain how I sometimes sail east and/or west --and back -- up to five miles each way (e.g., Maryhill Bridge to well east of Rufus and back on a 65L Bonzer) from launches? Or range up and down the river over a couple of miles many times each session, sometimes well over a mile in one powered reach, on comparable boards?

Sorry, guy, but you're ASSuming way too much about my life.

"Well east of Rufus"? Do you go through the locks at the John Day dam whilst travelling way easy of Rufus or do you just jump over the dam?

Looser straps gained popularity around the time shortboard freestyle was making its way into the waves at the pro level. Details about exactly when are a bit fuzzy, but let's say it was in about 2006-7. That's around the time we also saw the return to very long harness lines, yet this time paired with an upright stance.

This upright stance allowed thinner-railed boards to sail upwind decently but made the "normal" strap tension a bit looser to prevent the foot from binding when standing taller over the board.

If you are sailing your boards with harness lines shorter than 26 inches I suspect you probably do feel disconnected in chop when trying looser straps. This disconnection may be a function of your stance that perhaps is more classically, slalom or BAF: sailing against the rails when reaching and pushing reasonably hard against the fin.

You might consider changing your harness line length and adjusting your stance to reflect more of the style used by the testers when running through prototypes.

Another factor could be fin location if not power. If you can move your fin's center of effort back in the box (either adjusting in the box or trying a different fin) the board should settle down in chop. It also may be the case that a slightly less powerful fin could help keep the nose down if in fact that is what's causing the control issue -even if only in part.

Moving the fin back, using longer harness lines, raising your booms and (sometimes) moving your mast foot forward a very tiny amount ALL TOGETHER will settle any board down. You might find some combination there that can bring your weight over the board a bit and get you locked in to looser straps.

It works for me, and I'm an old-school, power sailor who tends now to get overpowered since I sail shortboards less frequently in the last few years._________________Support Your Sport. Join US Windsurfing!
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surf sailing and gorge swell sailing only resemble each other when one is comparing really onshore conditions in the surf with the columbia river. i tend to want, yet am often too lazy, to tighten my straps a bit if it's really too onshore to get a couple of forced front side turns in a row. so, even if it's 30 degrees or so onshore, i tend to seek deep foot straps, esp the back.

if i was mainly sailing the ditch, i'd probably want my straps 15% tighter. it really is like sailing open ocean swell, or onshore surf.

I now ride with my fin all the way back on my wave board which is still further forward than on my freestyle wave board when looking at the alignment with the rear footstrap.

I have changed from 26 to 30" lines and it improved my sailing immensely, freed up the board. I also now have my rear foot deeper when cruising which allows me to play with the board "tilt" without pressuring the fin.

And finally, I have moved my mast track a bit forward to tame the board and draw nice, long and steady arcs at the bottom on front foot turns.

Now I need to work on the courage it takes to hit the vertical lip of a near-breaking 2m wave... until then I'm happy to ride smaller ones to work on my technique.

One thing about the boom height though, it seems that with the longer lines, I am "sitting" farther from the boom and it feels like I should lower it a bit. It's about at neck / throat level right now.

DanWeiss wrote:

manuel, maybe this was covered, maybe not.

Looser straps gained popularity around the time shortboard freestyle was making its way into the waves at the pro level. Details about exactly when are a bit fuzzy, but let's say it was in about 2006-7. That's around the time we also saw the return to very long harness lines, yet this time paired with an upright stance.

This upright stance allowed thinner-railed boards to sail upwind decently but made the "normal" strap tension a bit looser to prevent the foot from binding when standing taller over the board.

If you are sailing your boards with harness lines shorter than 26 inches I suspect you probably do feel disconnected in chop when trying looser straps. This disconnection may be a function of your stance that perhaps is more classically, slalom or BAF: sailing against the rails when reaching and pushing reasonably hard against the fin.

You might consider changing your harness line length and adjusting your stance to reflect more of the style used by the testers when running through prototypes.

Another factor could be fin location if not power. If you can move your fin's center of effort back in the box (either adjusting in the box or trying a different fin) the board should settle down in chop. It also may be the case that a slightly less powerful fin could help keep the nose down if in fact that is what's causing the control issue -even if only in part.

Moving the fin back, using longer harness lines, raising your booms and (sometimes) moving your mast foot forward a very tiny amount ALL TOGETHER will settle any board down. You might find some combination there that can bring your weight over the board a bit and get you locked in to looser straps.

It works for me, and I'm an old-school, power sailor who tends now to get overpowered since I sail shortboards less frequently in the last few years.

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